Effect of hidrogel on tomato production under three regimes of irrigation

Abstract

The research was made with the purpose of evaluating the influence of the hidrogel-substrate mixtures, in the improving of the humidity retention and the effect of its properties on the tomato yield in three intervals of irrigation (1, 2 and 3 days). The hidrogel doses were: 0 (control), 2, 4, 6, and 8 kg per m3 of substrate. In the laboratory humidity retention of the mixture and analysis of porosity were carried out. The experiment was performed under a complete randomized factorial desing and three replications, factor "A" was the irrigation intervals and factor "B" was the hidrogel doses, the combination of both done fifteen treatments, with 45 experimental units; results of evaluation of the physical propierties showed that the major doses of hidrogel, causes the higher increasings in the humidity contents in the pot capacity, reaching an increasing's humidity of 9.89 percentage in volume bases. Concerning the porosity this characteristic was improved in 0.94 percentage per kg of hidrogel incorporated. Regarding the total fruit yield, a significant difference was observed between irrigation intervals, however, no significant difference was observed for the amount of hidrogel applied and for interaction between irrigation intervals and amount of hidrogel applied. Average tomato yield (kg per plant) results in the irrigation treatments were: 4.43 for daily; 3.03 every second day and 2.51 every three days.